Dinosaurs have long held sway over public imagination, thanks to filmmaker Steven Spielberg and his Jurassic Park series. But not many know that India has one of the world’s largest dinosaur sites in Gujarat.
The story of dinosaur discovery goes back to 1981, when geologists surveying a limestone mining belt near Raiyoli, 86 km from Ahmedabad, found rocks from the Cretaceous period that contained traces of fossils, including eggs that suggested the site was a major hatchery. Skeletal remains of Sauropods (herbivorous species) and Theropods (carnivorous species) were also found over subsequent excavations. In fact, findings revealed that as many as 13 species of dinosaurs thrived here. Today, visitors to Balasinor visit the Dinosaur Museum for an insight into the life of the extinct group of reptiles and then proceed to the Fossil Park at Raiyoli.
The museum—inaugurated in 2019 at Balasinor—was built in two phases: Phase 1 focused on the prehistoric life of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, and phase 2, inaugurated in 2022, continues the story of dinosaurs, especially after the Raiyoli finds. The museum has 16 galleries in all and comprises state-of-the-art technology like a 5D theatre, digital forest, 360-degree VR, experiment laboratory, semi-circulation project, 3D projection mapping and hologram.
One of the most spectacular displays is the 3D stereographical film, which depicts life in the Cretaceous period. This was the period of the Rajasaurus Narmadensis—a newly found species of carnivorous dinosaurs—believed to be endemic to this part of the world. “We used technologies like 3D projection-mapping and VR to create the effects,” says Vandana Raj of Ahmedabad-based creative design studio Vama Communication, which won the contract to develop the museum. She says it was challenging to build scaled-down models of the different dinosaurs with anatomically accurate studies of the skeletal structures.
The museum developers have also created films that focus on life in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. “I am especially proud of the film on palaeontologists, who study the soil at excavation sites and the rocks in which the fossils are found. They also work on laboratory research using the specimens, fossils and soil and go through data analysis. This is perhaps the only museum that has detailed the scientific work of these experts,” says Raj.
In the 1990s, the former royal family of Balasinor converted a part of their residential estate into a heritage hotel. This, in turn, brought the fossil site on the tourist map. Aaliya Bibi, the daughter of the late Nawab of Balasinor, who opened the heritage hotel in the mid-1990s, says, “My family’s advocacy helped bring government support for the development of tourism in Balasinor. Today, the dinosaur fossil park and museum together see a footfall of over 3,000 each week.”